


Linghun

by chatbug, projectml



Series: Project: Hungry Ghost Festival [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, project hungry ghost festival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:58:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatbug/pseuds/chatbug, https://archiveofourown.org/users/projectml/pseuds/projectml
Summary: Marinette comes back from a trip to China and finds that the spirit festival had followed her home.





	Linghun

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of Project: Miraculous Ladybug's Project: Hungry Ghost Festival, 2017.
> 
> Author  
> chatbug - https://chatbug-jk.tumblr.com

“Hey, Alya!” I called as I reached my desk. I’d gone to China the past week with my parents and I’d just gotten back. “Anything exciting happen while I was out of Paris?”

“There were a couple of akuma attacks, but they weren’t really anything to worry about,” Alya said, “What was interesting was that Ladybug missed both of them, so Terrapin had to purify the akumas, and no one has seen her going on patrols for about a week.”

“I’m sure that she’ll be back,” I said while setting my tablet on the desk. “All heroes have had to take time off before, and you of all people know that they always come back.”

“You’re right. I just had to say it,” Alya said. She knows I didn’t just disappear though. I’d told the whole team that I was going to be on a family trip for a week. She was playing a part, and honestly, it was getting a little annoying that we couldn’t talk openly.

Someone tackled me from behind my seat, throwing his arms around me. “Marinette!” The silly cat had finally gotten to school. I thought that he would have gotten here much earlier, bouncing in his seat in excitement. He leaned down and whispered into my ear, “Plagg spent half an hour grooming himself in front of my mirror, claiming the whole time that in no way, shape, or form would he be going anywhere near Tikki,” He nuzzled my ear. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“I’m glad to be back to, Kitty,” I whispered back, reaching around to scratch his ear. “We can talk more after class, but my trip was really fun, and I learned a lot.”

   Adrien moved around to stand in front of me. “Well, then I will talk to you later, M’Lady.” He kissed my hand and went to take his seat next to Nino. He could be such a dork sometimes.

“And when did this happen?” Alya asked, and I almost jumped off the bench. Chat and I had decided to reveal our identities before I had left for China, and there was no way that I could have told Alya that. I was honestly hoping she wouldn’t notice even though I knew that wasn’t going to happen. “I know he wasn’t like this before you left to go on your trip.”

“Maybe he missed me?” I said, wincing. 

”I’ll get it out of you soon, girl. Just you wait.” Alya took her phone out of her pocket and brought up the Ladyblog.

* * *

 

A couple of weeks later Alya came running into my room after school and proceeded to shove her phone into my face. It was open to the akuma sightings page and there were numerous reports of odd occurrences around the city. Things randomly falling and such.

“What do you think?” Alya asked. “Do you think there might be some type of ghost akuma or something? All of these events match what a poltergeist would do.”

“Maybe.” I mused, we’d have to bring the whole team together to discuss this later. “On another note, could you help me with my physics homework? I’m lost and it’s due tomorrow.”

Alya gave me a look that I couldn’t quite decipher. “Why don’t you ask your new beau? He seems to have a good grasp on physics.”

“Alya!” I blushed and hid my face in my arms. “Too soon!”

Alya had to leave soon after. I sketched for a little while, but my mind started to wander to the disturbances, and all the trouble they were causing people. I picked up my cell and called Adrien, figuring that between the two of us we could come up with something to do about it. We decided that we would have to talk to the rest of the team about the disturbances, so once my parents had gone to sleep I stepped out onto my balcony so that I could call Terrapin and Lisica.  I told Terrapin and Lisica to meet at our spot at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

I swung over and got there at the same time as Chat. This was the first time that we’d seen each other in costume since we’d revealed our identities to each other. Lisica was bound to notice something was different.

Chat stood up from where he’d been dangling his legs off the deck and took my hand to kiss it. “M’Lady I’m glad to see you again, especially after your long trip. I’m sorry that it had to be under these circumstances.” His bright green eyes twinkled with the secret knowledge that he’d seen me every day and school, and that he’d been literally hanging over me every day.He can be such a possessive cat sometimes.

Lisica and Terrapin landed behind him, and I gestured for them to sit down. “All of you have probably heard about the odd sightings by now. We need to decide what we’re going to do about it.” I said, getting straight to the point. “We don’t really know anything about what’s going on, not even if it’s an akuma, and it’s making me nervous.”

“I don’t think it’s an akuma.” Terrapin said. “It hasn’t demanded our Miraculous or even shown it’s face. Also, it’s been over three weeks since the last akuma attack, and while none of us are complaining about that, it doesn’t go with anything we’ve seen Papillon do so far. I think that chances are we’re dealing with some outside force.” Terrapin concluded. He’d been working to take on the role of guardian, and it’s clear that Master Fu’s teachings had sunk in.

“If you don’t think it’s an akuma, then what else could it be?” Lisica asked. “I looked earlier but I couldn’t find any reports of things like this happening anywhere near Paris. It’s honestly freaking me out.”

“I think we all feel that way.” Chat said, leaning onto her shoulder. “What if we wait it out for a week and see what happens, if anything changes. How much could go wrong in a week?”

Curse that stupid cat and his bad luck. Before a couple days had even passed, the events became more malevolent and the ghosts started to manifest in visible form. They were appearing in various period clothing, some looking like it was a normal day, others with fatal wounds. They were knocking things off shelves and slamming doors in people’s faces and such. Terrapin called the rest of us to suggest we go to Master Fu’s that night.

We all came in through the hatch Master Fu had in his roof and sat around the short table Master Fu had in his living room. Master Fu came into the room with a book written in strange symbols that he laid in the middle of the table and opened to a page with a strange drawing in the center.

“As you might have guessed already, this isn’t some average akuma attack.” Master Fu started, and we all leaned a bit closer to him. “If I am correct, I think that we are experiencing the Hungry Ghost Festival.”

“But isn’t that from Chinese folklore? Isn’t all that stuff made up?” I asked. It was something that I had heard about from my family, but I never believed in the occult.

“Aren’t the Miraculous just something dredged up from ancient myths?” Master Fu asked before continuing. “It seems that Papillon caused the festival to come here by using his powers to harm the souls of others. This might be stopping him from transforming, similar things have happened in the past.” He paused, and we all nodded. It made sense. “I found a ritual that has been used before when events like this have occurred, but I don’t know if it will work. It’s purpose is to call forth your siblings, in this case past holders, to come and defend you. They should be able to defend Paris until the festival ends.”

“Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming?” Lisica asked.

“I don’t know how this ritual will affect you or your powers.” Master Fu said. “Most likely anything would be temporary, but there’s no way to be sure.”

“We have to do it.” Chat said. “We put our lives on the line all the time, why would this be any different?”

“Do we all agree to do this?” I asked, and the rest of the team nodded. I copied down the symbol in the book, and Master Fu helped me transliterate the weird writing into something that we could read. We said goodbye and left, after deciding that we would use the top deck of the Eiffel Tower to cast the ritual. I quickly went home to get chalk to draw the symbol with while the others went and got the salt and candles.

We all met back up and started setting up the ritual. First we needed to draw a triple moon on the ground, a pentacle with a crescent moon facing out on either side of it. Then we needed to place a candle on each of the points of the pentacle and light them all at the same time. Lastly we needed to sprinkle salt on each of the moons.

We each stood at one of the cardinal directions once we finished, and began the chant. “Power of the sisters and brothers rise, Course unseen across the skies, come to us who call you near, come to us and settle here, blood to blood,” As we chanted the wind seemed to blow harder around us and we could hear voices. They seemed encouraging and proud, but none of us could make out what they were saying. “I summon thee, blood to blood, return to me.” When we finished chanting a wind rushed out from the center of the pentacle, blowing out the candles and knocking us backwards and out.

I woke up to see that was still at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and that the diagram we had drawn for the ritual was still intact except for the candles going out. I looked down off the side to see none of the ghosts that had been everywhere earlier. The ritual must have worked.

I heard Lisica scream from my right and I looked over to her to see what was wrong. She was pointing at me and her face had gone pale. She was wearing her normal clothes, and there was no trace of her mask or her ears. Our Miraculous must have timed out or the spell knocked off our transformations. 

I put my hand over her mouth. “Stop screaming.” I said quietly. “Yes I’m Ladybug, but the whole world doesn’t need to know!” She nodded and I took my hand off her mouth. 

I looked around and saw Adrien and Nino lying on the ground on the other side of the diagram. I carefully walked around it and shook Adrien’s shoulder to wake him up.

“Ladybug?” He asked, his voice still heavy with sleep.

“Nope. Marinette.” I said. “Nice choice for Terrapin by the way.” That woke him up. He shot up and looked around, taking in the scene, including how Alya had run over to hug Nino.

“The spell knocked our transformations off?” He asked, and I nodded, leaning on his shoulder.

“What?” Alya yelled, coming over to us. “How are you two not freaking out about this?”

“We already knew.” Adrien said simply. “We decided to share our identities before Marinette left for China in case something happened.”

“But,” Alya looked between me and Adrien and then gave a knowing smile. “That was what brought the two of you together, huh?”

“Yup.” I confirmed. And I thought the grilling a few days was bad, this was going to be so much worse.


End file.
